Reflections on Hard Knocks

Jane McManus (follow her @janesports on Twitter) has covered sports since 1998 and began covering football just before Brett Favre's stint with the Jets. Her work has appeared in Newsday, USA Today, The Journal News and The New York Times.

Now that the Dolphins are officially the "Hard Knocks" team, NFL fans won’t be able to settle in to watch the Jets for an hour each week with their popcorn, or as Rex Ryan famously said, a g**d*** snack.

“We’ve already seen that movie,” said linebacker Bart Scott.

Still, Scott and other Jets said being the subject of the most recent "Hard Knocks" in 2010 was a good experience, and Scott even said it benefited the team when it came to attracting free agents.

“For us it was a tool that was used to recruit other free agents to let them know this was a good place to come,” Scott said.

Specifically based on the power of Ryan’s personality.

“You saw that effect taking hold when people said ‘I would love to play for Rex Ryan’ after Hard Knocks,” Scott said.

Last season the show took a hiatus given the NFL lockout.

“It was fine,” center Nick Mangold said. “To me I thought the neatest was seeing how much film they had, how they took a day and a half to pare it all down and put it into an hour form. That was impressive. Other than that, we’ve got camera around here as you can see. It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Asked about the show, cornerback Darrelle Revis congratulated the Dolphins. Asked what he thought of the experience, he smiled.

“I mean, I wasn’t even here for it,” said Revis.

Technically that’s true, but Revis and his holdout from training camp was a central plot line, complete with a meeting between his agents and general manager Mike Tannenbaum at the Roscoe Diner.

With scenes like that, "Hard Knocks" certainly opened a window on how the team operates.

“I think when you have an unknown coach where people don’t know how he goes about business, his style his personality,” Scott said. “I think it’s a way to open them up to the personality I think early on with new coaches it’s a good thing for them to really understand.”

One Jet who didn’t bite on the subject? Offensive coordinator Tony Sparano, who coached the Dolphins last season.

“Look, I am a New York Jet, okay?” Sparano said. “I'm not any of that other business right now. I don't make any decisions here. I just coach offense. That's what I do.”